You Deserve to Get Paid
Psst….hey, studio owner….
I am going to let you in on a secret.
Once you understand this, you will feel so much better about the financial decisions you make for your studio.
Your clients want you to make a profit. They really do.
How do you feel about making a profit?
If you’re anything like I was for the first few years of studio ownership, you probably have some guilt about making any money at all. Yoga should be free, right? And you don't really care about the money, you just want to change people's lives.
Sound familiar?
Heck, you’re just thrilled people want to trade their hard-earned cash and valuable time to come to class. Even if you’re teaching a bunch of classes, cleaning the bathrooms, working a side-gig and relying on your spouse’s job to pay all of your personal bills, you’re over the half-moon that you get to change the world, one sun salutation at a time.
I promise you, your clients don’t want that life for you. They want you to make money. In fact, they need you to make money. If you don't make money, your life-changing studio can't stay open, and they don't get to do yoga with you and your rock-star team.
I'd bet they don't work for free, and they don't expect that from you, either.
In every aspect of your studio business, your ability to make money improves their experience, increases your ability to streamline your operations and allows you the freedom to enhance your community with new classes, new teachers, and new programming.
What did you pay yourself last month? Really. A lot? Enough? Not so much?
I get it. You may not be lining your pockets with cash right now, as we are finally getting to the other side of COVID and the slowdowns it caused. But now, more than ever, paying yourself is one of the most important things you can do in your studio business, to ensure that you and your studio can thrive, not just survive. That is no fun.
Most of us will do whatever it takes to make sure that our teachers are paid, our rent is covered, and that the lights stay on. We feel like we OWE IT to our community, and that we should SACRIFICE for the cause of providing yoga to our community.
I used to think this way, too. In the early years of studio ownership, I would go for weeks without paying myself, as if everything else was more important, and that my contribution to the business was not significant or worthy of a paycheck.
Once I realized that my work was both VALUABLE and NECESSARY, I began to pay myself, just a little bit to start, and everything slowly began to change. For the better. Week by week my paychecks got bigger and bigger, and my mindset about what I deserved began to change, as well.
My guess is that you are working your ass off, and and you deserve to get paid. And not just the leftovers.
If you have not paid yourself during this pandemic, or ever, set it up right now. Pay yourself AUTOMATICALLY each week or month, whatever works for you.
Maybe it just a wee little bit right now, but the mindset shift of knowing that your work is valued and significant is HUGE.
The money is there. You may need to make some tough decisions about costs to cut, prices to increase, new programming or revenue streams. But it is there for you when you set your mind to it, and make paying yourself every bit as important as paying the rent each month.
Still can't find the money? Let me help you.
Book a Studio Strategy Tune-up with me and together we will improve your budgeting, pricing, email journeys...whatever you need.
A Studio Strategy Tune-Up is one 60-minute call plus one 45-minute follow-up call within 30 days with unlimited email support in between, for only $397!. This is a great place to start if you are not quite ready for long-term one-on-one coaching, and I would be honored to talk with you about how I can help.